357. How is the Christian moral life bound up with faith and the sacraments? (part 1)
(Comp 357) What the symbol of faith professes, the sacraments communicate. Indeed,
through them the faithful receive the grace of Christ and the gifts of the Holy
Spirit which give them the capability of living a new life as children of God
in Christ whom they have received in faith.
“O Christian, recognize your dignity.” (Saint Leo the Great).
“In brief”
(CCC 1691) "Christian, recognize your dignity and, now
that you share in God's own nature, do not return to your former base condition
by sinning. Remember who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Never
forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into
the light of the Kingdom of God"
(St. Leo the Great, Sermo 21 in
nat. Dom., 3: PL 54, 192C).
To deepen and
explain
(CCC 1692) The Symbol of the faith confesses the greatness
of God's gifts to man in his work of creation, and even more in redemption and
sanctification. What faith confesses, the sacraments communicate: by the
sacraments of rebirth, Christians have become "children of God" (Jn
1:12; 1 Jn 3:1). "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Pet 1:4). Coming
to see in the faith their new dignity, Christians are called to lead henceforth
a life "worthy of the gospel of Christ" (Phil 1:27). They are made
capable of doing so by the grace of Christ and the gifts of his Spirit, which
they receive through the sacraments and through prayer. (CCC 1693) Christ Jesus
always did what was pleasing to the Father
(Cf. Jn 8:29), and always lived in
perfect communion with him. Likewise Christ's disciples are invited to live in
the sight of the Father "who sees in secret" (Mt 6:6) in order to
become "perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Mt 5:48).
Reflection
(CCC 1694) Incorporated into Christ by Baptism, Christians are "dead to sin and alive to
God in Christ Jesus" and so participate in the life of the Risen Lord (Rom
6:11 and cf. 6:5; cf. Col 2:12). Following Christ and united with him (Cf. Jn
15:5), Christians can strive to be "imitators of God as beloved children,
and walk in love" (Eph 5:1-2) by
conforming their thoughts, words and actions to the "mind… which is yours
in Christ Jesus" (Phil 2:5), and by following his example (Cf. Jn
13:12-16). (CCC 1695) "Justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and
in the Spirit of our God" (2 Cor 6:11), "sanctified … (and) called to
be saints" (1 Cor 1:2), Christians have become the temple of the Holy Spirit (Cf. 1 Cor 6:19). This
"Spirit of the Son" teaches them to pray to the Father (Cf. Gal 4:6)
and, having become their life, prompts them to act so as to bear "the
fruit of the Spirit" (Gal 5:22, 25) by charity in action. Healing the
wounds of sin, the Holy Spirit renews us interiorly through a spiritual
transformation (Cf. Eph 4:23). He enlightens and strengthens us to live as
"children of light" through "all that is good and right and
true" (Eph 5:8, 9). [IT
CONTINUES]
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